Editing Arabian Peninsula (section)

==Etymology==
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{{main|Etymology of Arab{{!}}Etymology of ''Arab''}}

In antiquity, the term "Arabia" encompassed a larger area than the current term "Arabian Peninsula" and included the [[Arabian Desert]] and large parts of the [[Syrian Desert|Syrian–Arabian desert]]. During the [[Hellenistic period]], the area was known as ''Arabia'' ({{langx|grc|Ἀραβία}}). The [[Ancient Rome|Romans]] named three regions "Arabia": 
* [[Arabia Petraea]] ({{gloss|Stony Arabia}}<ref name="Arabia Petraea">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Arabia Petraea |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Arabia-Petraea |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=18 February 2021 |ref=Arabia Petraea |archive-date=25 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225171428/https://www.britannica.com/place/Arabia-Petraea |url-status=live }}</ref>): it consisted of the former [[Nabataean Kingdom]] in the southern Levant, the Sinai Peninsula and north-western Arabian Peninsula. It was the only one that became a [[Roman province|province]], with [[Petra]] (in [[Jordan]]) as its capital.
* [[Arabia Deserta]] ({{gloss|Desert Arabia}}): signified the desert lands of Arabia. As a name for the region, it remained popular into the 19th and 20th centuries, and was used in [[Charles M. Doughty]]'s ''[[Travels in Arabia Deserta]]'' (1888).
* [[Arabia Felix]] ({{gloss|Fortunate Arabia}}): was used by geographers to describe the southern part of the Arabian peninsula, mostly what is now [[Yemen]], which enjoys more rainfall, is much greener than the rest of the peninsula and has long enjoyed much more productive fields.

One of the [[Nome (Egypt)|nomes]] of Ptolemaic Egypt was named ''Arabia''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=De Jong |first=Janneke |title=Arabia, Arabs, and "Arabic" in Greek Documents From Egypt in "New Frontiers of Arabic Papyrology Arabic and Multilingual Texts from Early Islam" |publisher=Brill |year=2017 |isbn=9789004345171}}</ref>

Arabians used a north–south division of Arabia: ''ash-Sham'' vs. ''al-Yaman'', or ''Arabia Deserta'' vs. ''Arabia Felix''. Arabia Felix had originally been used for the whole peninsula, and at other times only for the southern region. Because its use became limited to the south, the whole peninsula was simply called Arabia. Arabia Deserta was the entire desert region extending north from Arabia Felix to Palmyra and the Euphrates, including all the area between Pelusium on the Nile and Babylon. This area was also called Arabia and not sharply distinguished from the peninsula.<ref>{{cite book | last=Frankfurter | first=David | title=Pilgrimage and Holy Space in Late Antique Egypt | publisher=Brill | place=Leiden | date=1998 | isbn=90-04-11127-1 |page=163}}</ref>

The Arabs and the Ottoman Empire considered the west of the Arabian Peninsula region where the Arabs lived 'the land of the Arabs'—billad '''al-'Arab''' (Arabia), and its major divisions were the bilad '''al-Sham''' ([[Levant]]), bilad '''al-Yaman''' ([[South Arabia|Yemen]]), and bilad '''al-'Iraq''' ([[Iraq]]).<ref name = california>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4vOJ15vTZV4C&pg=PA60 |title=A House of Many Mansions: The History of Lebanon Reconsidered |first=Kamal Suleiman |last=Salibi |publisher=University of California Press |date=1988 |isbn=978-0-520-07196-4 |pages=60–61 |access-date=19 October 2015 |archive-date=13 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200613100816/https://books.google.com/books?id=4vOJ15vTZV4C&pg=PA60 |url-status=live }}</ref> The Ottomans used the term Arabistan in a broad sense for the region starting from [[Cilicia]], where the Euphrates river makes its descent into Syria, through [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]], and on through the remainder of the Sinai and Arabian peninsulas.<ref>See for example Palestine: The Reality, [[Joseph Mary Nagle Jeffries]], Published by Longmans, Green and co., 1939, [https://archive.org/details/PalestineTheReality/page/n4/mode/1up Page 11]</ref>

The provinces of Arabia were: al-Tih, the Sinai peninsula, Hejaz, Asir, Yemen, Hadramaut, Mahra and Shilu, Oman, Hasa, Bahrain, Dahna, Nufud, the Hammad, which included the deserts of Syria, Mesopotamia and Babylonia.<ref>see Review of Reviews and World's Work: An International Magazine, Albert Shaw ed., The Review of Reviews Corporation, 1919, page 408]</ref><ref name=nie>{{cite encyclopedia|entry=Arabia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GRUoAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA795|encyclopedia=New International Encyclopedia |edition=2nd |year=1914|access-date=24 October 2020|archive-date=24 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160624035755/https://books.google.com/books?id=GRUoAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA795|url-status=live}}</ref>